The marketing industry has always had a simple equation: ambition costs money. Big visual ideas require big production costs. That equation is starting to break down.
AI production tools are quietly reshaping what mid-to-low budget campaigns can look like. Visual sequences that traditionally required large tools and physical sets can now be generated for a fraction of the cost.
The implications for the industry are significant. Not because AI replaces the people making the work, but because it changes who can afford to make the work in the first place.
A recent sexual health campaign for Four Seasons Naked Condoms, from AiCandy in partnership with Emotive, has illustrated this shift.
Its centred around a short film starring a Gen Z couple who ponder having unprotected sex. They are then met with a giant baby (think Michellin Man in Ghostbusters) rampaging through a city followed by a giant gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis monsters wreacking havoc.
There are a few hilarious nods to hens’ parties and cranberry juice dotted into the script, followed by a giant condom who saves the day (Godzilla, you are next!).
By conventional production standards, this should have been an expensive (and messy) brief, but it wasn’t.
Emotive creative leader, Gavin McLeod said: “It was a conscious decision to make something that is AI led. We’re not trying to mimic an existing form like traditional production. We’re trying to create something completely new.”
The campaign stemmed from a real problem. According to the Kirby institute, more than 101,000 Australians were diagnosed with chlamydia in 2024, with approximately half of them aged between 20 and 29. Research from La Trobe University found more than half of young Australians did not use a condom the last time they had sex.
The choice to meet that problem with dark comedy and AI-generated horror was deliberate.
The team behind it has been cleat that the work is as much about normalising the conversation as it is about any single act of persuasion.
Whether that translated into measurable behaviour change is an open question.
What is less open is the production question. The directing duo behind the film, who work under the name Too Short For modelling, were direct about were they see AI sitting in the workflow.
McLeod said: “Anybody can do anything now, but that doesn’t replace taste or experience. That’s the difference between something that looks good and something that looks exceptional.”
That distinction between access and quality is where the more interesting industry debate lies. AI has lowered the barrier to entry for high-fidelity production. It has not necessarily lowered the bar for judgement.
AiCandy co-founder and head of creative, Marcus Tesoriero said: “There’s so much slop out in the world. This hugely powerful tool is in the hand of absolutely everyone. A lot of people who don’t know how to use it are using it in a bad way. Everyone now has the keys to the f1 fighter jet, but most people don’t know how to fly it.”
McLeod added: “If I’m shooting a film with a camera, the camera is playing a massive role, but the person driving the camera is what gives you the output. It’s exactly the same.”
With the film set to run across YouTube, Meta and Snapchat, with Snapchat chosen deliberately for its concentration of gen Z users. The choice reflected the broader strategic reality of reaching younger audiences through meeting them where their attention already is.
Emotive founder and CEO, Simon Joyce said: “This audience, Gen Z, has more access to sexual health information than any other generation. Yet, STIs are increasing at an alarming rate.
“We know absurdity and humour is a way in to connect with Gen Z, especially for a platform like like Snapchat. We need to walk that line of not shaming and creating these STI monsters, in a way, where there’s a little bit of charm about them, but also reinforcing the message.
As production tools become more capable, the question for the industry is what separates work that looks possible from the work that actually lands.
AiCandy co-founder and head of production, Kent Boswell said: “There is still that perception that AI can look cheap. The work we are creating, the films we put out in the market, we want people to look at as films.”
Credits
Client: Four Seasons Naked Condoms
Creative Agency: Emotive
AI Film Production: AiCandy Australia
Social AI Production: Emotive Productions
PR: Emotive
Client: Four Seasons Naked Condoms
Managing Director: Michael Porter
Creative Agency, Social AI Production & PR: Emotive
CEO & Founder: Simon Joyce
CCO: Gavin McLeod
Creative: Gary Eck
Head of PR & Influencer: Rhania Farah
Head of Social & Content: Clément Simon
Business Director/s: Zoe Hartas, Tian Skene
General Manager, Emotive Productions: Hayley-Ritz Pelling
Creative Direction and AI Artists: Paul Sharp, Ed Macaulay
Head of Design: Daniel Mortensen
Editor: Sam Gadsden
Producer: Michael Hollis
Post Producer: Rebecca Love-Williams
Sound Design: Electric Sheep Music
AI Film Production: AiCandy Australia
Head of Production: Kent Boswell
Head of Creative: Marcus Tesoriero
AI Directors: Too Short For Modelling
Social Media Buying
All Social: Ruud Spierings
